Hostilities halted again as peace talks continue

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from London. Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily Open newsletter.

Geopolitical developments have dominated weekend newsflow, with a flare-up of tensions in Iran being quickly de-escalated.

But markets may need convincing that the ceasefire can really hold, as negotiations are stop-start at best.

The U.S. and Iran have reached a fresh agreement to halt hostilities after renewed fighting over the weekend between the two sides.

The military exchanges saw the U.S. strike Iranian military targets in response to Tehran’s latest attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

However, on Sunday, Washington and Tehran agreed to pause hostilities, resume commercial vessel traffic through the strategically important waterway and resume technical talks towards a peace deal.

“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU,” a U.S. official told CNBC on Sunday. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely.”

Stock futures in the U.S. are edging higher, while trading across Asia is mixed and Europe looks set for a muted open. Crude prices have jumped back above $70 a barrel amid concerns over the fragility of the peace negotiations.

This week, central banks take center stage in Sintra, Portugal, where the European Central Bank hosts its own version of Jackson Hole. Later today, ECB President Christine Lagarde gets the event underway with the opening speech. CNBC is at the event, with Sara Eisen moderating the headline panel on Wednesday, tune in for that.

The meeting takes place as the Bank of International Settlements warns that pressures from rising public debt to financial fragilities and the sustainability of the AI boom are increasing global risks, underscoring the need for disciplined policymaking.

In technology news, shares in SK Hynix have turned positive, reversing steep losses after the group, alongside Samsung, unveiled trillion-dollar investment plans to build new fabs. Meanwhile, tension is brewing between Google and Meta, after the Alphabet-owned group said it will limit the social media giant’s use of its AI tool Gemini. That’s according to the Financial Times.

— Leonie Kidd

The AI boom is colliding with a new threat: severe weather

As Europeans scramble to stay cool amid a record-breaking heatwave, Big Tech faces its own battle to keep powerful chips in AI data centers running.

Temperatures this week have underscored the impact the weather can have on infrastructure like factories, nuclear power plants and data centers. Extra demand from air conditioning units can overload power grids, causing blackouts that can disrupt infrastructure. And it’s not just Europe.

Over the past three years, severe weather has become the leading cause of loss in Zurich‘s U.S. data center builders’ risk portfolio. It now drives a…